


Intergalactic Standard Cuddling

by alittlelesspain, fictorium, Kendrickhier, Musetotheworld, SapphicScholar



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Drunk Dialing, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 13:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19021303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlelesspain/pseuds/alittlelesspain, https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kendrickhier/pseuds/Kendrickhier, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musetotheworld/pseuds/Musetotheworld, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphicScholar/pseuds/SapphicScholar
Summary: Cat is asleep. Kara is drunk. Both of them need a hug. Or a nice long cuddle session.





	Intergalactic Standard Cuddling

**Author's Note:**

> Round robin style fic writing featuring 5 authors and a basic premise. Lots of fun all around!

Cat reaches blindly for her ringing phone as she gives the cursing section of her vocabulary a middle of the night workout. She blinks at the display, wondering whether the world is ending as she finds a name that she hasn’t seen in months staring back up at her. Or maybe this is still a dream and she’s still soundly asleep. That momentary doubt is dispelled by the insistent buzzing of the phone in her hand, as it goes unanswered. Kara’d better have a good reason for calling her after all this time.

“You’ve reached the Former Assistants of Cat Grant Helpline, how may we direct your call?” Cat can’t resist messing with her on answering, even if her raspy voice did betray that she’d only just woken up. 

A hiccuping giggle is her only response for a long while, and Cat can’t help but roll her eyes at the thought of Kara, who swore up and down drinking did nothing for her, barely balancing on a barstool--or, perhaps, wobbling through the air (though she hoped Kara would be smarter than that).

“Does this call serve a purpose beyond waking me up?” Cat asks when the giggling lasts a little too long.

The thought that she might have been a little too harsh flies by when the instantaneous response is another giggle and what sounds like a watery snort, as if Kara had choked on another sip. 

“Very well, good night,” Cat says, not leaving any room for Kara to speak another word before hanging up the call. When the damn thing just rings again immediately, Cat isn’t sure whether to answer it or throw it at the wall.

“Yes, Kiera?” Cat snaps, having grown a bit tired with the drunk dial routine about twenty years ago.

“No, don’t hang up,” Kara says, her voice sounding a lot less chipper than it had on the last call.

Cat considers doing so anyways, just to drive home a point, but there’s an unusual note in Kara’s tone that stays her thumb as it hovers over the dial icon. “Give me one good reason not to,” she says instead.

“Cuddles!” Kara blurts, and Cat can hear the wide-eyed gasp of panic the moment the word is expelled into the universe. 

Cat has to blink a few times to be sure she’s still in her bedroom in her DC townhouse before she even thinks about responding to that. World endings and even crank calls she’s prepared to deal with, sudden and unexplained requests for cuddling, not so much.

“Cuddles?” Kara repeats into the phone, sounding more morose this time, as if she thinks Cat’s lack of a reply is because she hadn’t heard her, and not because Cat has been struck dumb by the mere idea.

“Cuddles,” Cat parrots incredulously, recognizing Kara will need some sort of reply despite her lack of knowing how to react to such a thing. “Wait, you are talking about… hugging someone, and not some strange girl you’ve befriended in Accounting again, right?”

“Alex says I’m really good at cuddling,” Kara announces, her words slurring together slightly. “The best on twelve planets, even if she’s only been on two.”

“I’m glad Agent Scully is devoting our hard-earned government dollars to surveying the benefits of cuddling all over the galaxy,” Cat says, but she can’t help the slight lift of her lips at the return of the familiar banter between them.

That earns her a giggle. “It’s very important research, you know.” Kara is trying her best to sound serious, but in her current state she is incapable of suppressing her giggles adequately.

“None of which explains why you’re calling me at something shy of three in the morning to giggle more than Taylor Swift in an Instagram video, or talk a lot of nonsense about cuddling, Kara.”

After a beat of silence, Kara’s voice comes crackling back over the line: “I think...I think you’re probably good at cuddling too, even though you’d be so mad if anyone else knew.”

Well then, first giggling and now a very thinly veiled proposition, Cat didn’t know the girl had it in her, even for something as innocent as cuddles.

“If you’re proposing what I think you're proposing,” she says, deciding to cut to the chase, “tell me how you expect me to prove or disprove your claim when we’re on different sides of the country.”

“That’s easy!” Kara speaks just a little too loudly, followed by a gasp and a much softer voice, a near whisper, “I could fly over.”

Cat pinches the bridge of her nose, wishing she’d brought her earlier bottle of Scotch to bed, and tries her best to pretend Kara did her the courtesy of ever actually admitting her aerodynamic alter ego. Deciding a drunk confrontation about the matter won’t solve anything, Cat addresses her pragmatic concerns: “Please tell me you didn’t just announce that in one of those terribly crowded bars you millennials love to frequent.”

“I mean, it’s a little crowded tonight for karaoke but they won’t tell on me.”

The absolute trust and confidence in Kara’s voice makes Cat smile despite herself; she’s heard precious little of its kind in Washington, and maybe one day if she gets as drunk as Kara currently is, she might admit she’s missed it. “Nonetheless, flying under influence does not sound like your brightest idea.”

“Oh Ms. Grant, you don’t want to cuddle with me because I’m bright.”

For a moment, a flush of white-hot humiliation rushes through Cat; had she really been so obvious about her attraction to the girl?

“I think you’d want to cuddle with me because you probably need a good hug yourself these days.”

Cat wonders what’s worse, that Kara is just that naturally perceptive of everyone’s deepest foibles and desires, or that she’s learned specifically about Cat’s own. It shouldn’t be too surprising—Kara’d been her assistant for an impressive amount of time after all; still, this felt like information that was much too personal to be on display for anyone, even Kara.

“And if I did...need a good hug these days… then just how does someone get the best cuddler on twelve planets to abandon all her responsibilities and fly--sober--across a continent? More importantly, when?”

“Oh Ms. Grant,” Kara sighs, “all you’d need to do is say the word.”

Maybe it’s the lack of sleep, maybe it’s the raw honesty and vulnerability in Kara’s voice, but somehow Cat’s walls are low enough to let a single “please” slip through her lips.

There’s a pause, long enough for Cat to regret everything that has occurred in the past five minutes and plan another retreat to the middle of nowhere, and then there’s a strong breeze, and the windows that had only been slightly open are gaping wide, and a familiar figure half stands, half stumbles by her bedside. 

She stares for a moment, then pulls aside the opposing corner of her blanket, inviting Kara in with a meaningful look. 

“I should banish you to the couch for flying here drunk, but I believe I was promised some intergalactic standard hugging,” Cat chides just a little. 

“Didn’t wanna wait,” Kara mumbles, already kicking off her shoes as she makes her way over to the bed.

Cat’s few hesitations fade away as she feels warm arms wrap tightly around her, after all Kara obviously flew too fast to be seen and there are no inconvenient chunks of masonry in her hair to hint at structural damage along her route.

“M’gann gave me something she said was supposed to sober me up,” Kara says, her words vibrating pleasantly against the side of Cat’s neck and face. “Tasted disgusting though,  _ ugh. _ ”

Cat hums, shifting slightly to make the most of the comfort Kara has to offer, already feeling her body relax in the embrace completely; she could most likely fall asleep like this, sooner than she’d like.

Just as Cat forces herself to speak up, to tell Kara that it can’t be this simple and they have to talk about what transcontinental cuddling means for the future, she’s silenced by Kara’s finger pressed tenderly against her lips and a muttered order that, “there’s no talking during cuddle time”. After a moment, she adds, “Normally, there’s no jeans either, but…” 

“My, you  _ are  _ bold tonight,” Cat teases, ignoring the no talking rule in favor of commenting on Kara’s almost brazen comment.

Kara’s replying laughter is almost silent, her breath rolling off Cat’s skin, unlike the giggles over the phone from just minutes earlier. 

There’s no further reply, and Cat finds she’s comfortable enough in the silence and  _ cuddling _ that she doesn’t feel the need to say anything more either. Despite her usual struggles to settle, Cat feels her eyes growing heavy as she sinks deeper into Kara’s steadfast embrace. Still, she’s not quite asleep enough to miss the whispered, “Night, Cat, I’ve missed you,” before Kara drops off to sleep herself.

They’ll have to talk in the morning, about the cuddling and the secret, but for now Cat lets herself have this admittedly desperately needed contact. And somehow, as everything seems easier when it’s with Kara, she knows having that difficult and long-awaited conversation would be easier than she’d anticipated, too.

With that last reassuring thought, she allows herself to drift off back to sleep.


End file.
